چکیده انگلیسی

The concept of Emotional Intelligence appears to be able to provide the premise to describe customer aptitude in managing emotions elicited in a service exchange, as well as provide the precedential link to understand customer affective responses. However, given that research in the commercial implications of emotional intelligence has focused predominantly in management literature, no widely accepted scale has yet been developed to assess implications of customer's emotional intelligence in a service context. This paper outlines the development of a new measure, the Customer Emotional Intelligence Scale (CEIS), an adaptation of the Workplace Emotional Intelligence Profile version 3 (WEIP-3) which was designed to profile the emotional intelligence of customers in the context of service encounters. Empirical investigation conducted in the context of service industry supported multidimensionality of the CEIS. Discussion in this paper focuses on the application of the scale in services marketing while outlining avenues for future research.

مقدمه انگلیسی

There is a growing interest in the role of emotions and the impact on the consumption experience. Despite acknowledgement of the importance of customer’s
emotional state as well as emotional response in the service encounter, empirical investigations of customers’ affective responses in this area remain scarce. One
explanation is that extant studies have yet to develop a conceptual framework to which customer affective characteristics can be captured. A prior study proposed that the concept of Emotional Intelligence (EI) may provide the basis to describe customer intrinsic affective attributes as well as provide the precedential link to understand customer affective responses. The study posited that EI can be conceptualised as a form of resource which customers may harness to serve their co-production role in a service encounter. Emotionaintelligence describes a set of social skills that involves
the management and control of intrinsic emotions as well as emotions elicited from a given interactional exchange. Since affective attributes are dynamic and prevalent throughout the entire service encounter, the concept of emotional intelligence may shed light on how customers can utilise their ability to manage emotions to shape and influence the experiential outcome of services. To successfully test the influence of customer’s emotional intelligence on their service experience, development of a measure suitable for capturing emotional expressions in the service context is necessary. Existing
scales that measure emotional intelligence are either designed as a broad-based assessment of individual skills in coping with environmental demands, or as a context specific measure of individual or group aptitude typically administered in the workplace. No scale has yet been developed for general marketing application and specifically in the context of services. Given the unique characteristics in the dyadic interaction between
the service provider and the customer, there is a need to develop a specific measure that evaluates customer’s emotional intelligence in the service context. The specific aim of this research was to develop a measure of customer emotional intelligence appropriate
for use in service encounters. It is anticipated that the scale development will allow a more in-depth investigation in customer behaviour, particularly in incidental
service encounters. This knowledge will provide the premises for the development of more focused marketing strategies in areas such as conflict resolution.The paper proceeds as follows. We first outline the development of a measure of emotional intelligence for service encounters; the Customer Emotional Intelligence Scale (CEIS). The CEIS is an adaptation of the WEIP-3, a measure of emotional intelligence for
workgroups in an organisation developed by Jordan and colleagues (2002). Modifications to the WEIP-3 are focused on changing the context of application from the workplace to the service setting, and from a within-work team interaction to customer-service provider exchange. Second, we assess the psychometric properties of the adopted scale, and finally we discuss limitations and provide suggestions for avenues for further research.

نتیجه گیری انگلیسی

The literature on emotions in services is still in embryonic stage of development and there is a call for a greater understanding in the role of emotions in consumption experience. The concept of Emotional Intelligence appears to be able to provide the premise to describe customer aptitude in managing emotions elicited in a service exchange, as well as to provide the precedential link to understand customer affective re
sponses. Given the lack of research of EI in marketing, it requires further empirical investigation in regards to its applicability to marketing. Preliminary conceptualisation of emotional intelligence in the consumption context is necessary to establish the groundwork for further studies in the area. This study contributes by taking the first step in establishing a measure of customer emotional intelligence in service encounters through the development of the Customer Emotional Intelligence Scale (CEIS), an adaptation of the WEIP-3. It is anticipated that the measure of customer emotional intelligence will provide the basis to establish links with variables associated with
customer affective response. Overall, results of this study provide evidence that the
CEIS scale demonstrate reliability as well as construct,convergent and discriminant validity. The CEIS adheres to Salovey and Mayer’s (1997) three original dimensions of emotional intelligence and shows that emotional intelligence can be conceptualised as a context-specific aptitude as suggested by several authors